Double Oops!

Oh my!  I did forget at least one person.  Wendy Puddy, though she couldn't be with us for garden club due to work, has been invaluable to the club.  Not only has she come out to help on weekends, but she arranged for two UVA landscape architecture students to help out with our plan,  written to local businesses for donations and donated a lot of equipment.  I've really appreciated all the help.  Sadly, the Puddy's will be moving in December.  They've very nicely left lots of garden stuff for us to use, though, including a great indoor grow light for starting seeds, a bunch of peat pots and a lot of soaker hose.  Thank you all so much, and have a great time in your new home!

Oops!

Wow!  So sorry.  I didn't forget about this blog, but I certainly have been kept busy doing paperwork at school.  Now that we're done the first quarter and a lot of that is out of the way, I'll try to be a bit more regular.

Esteban

Our first tree!

We had a very successful, but very large group in garden club this fall.  We fluctuated between about 35 and 40 kids every week for seven weeks.  It was a bit like herding cats, but we did manage to get a few things done.  We've started digging a huge flower bed, gotten a cover crop planted in the vegetable patch and planted the first tree in what I hope will be a small apple orchard.  The tree was provided by Mrs. Josie Cohen and family and is a dwarf Granny Smith.  My buddy Esteban and I planted it during one of our recesses.

Semi-Dwarf Granny Smith

I couldn't have done it without a lot of help.  Deborah Riddick, Theresa Gimbert, Angelo Vangelopolous, Sean O'Rourke (I'm glad he came despite the Yankee fanboy thing), Josie Cohen, Lori Stoddard, Amy Eastlack and Ken Ferguson all came out to help.  Please forgive me and let me know if I've left anyone out, it was quite a crowd.

I would like to continue with garden club after Thanksgiving on Tuesday afternoons.  Hopefully, and I know this sounds terrible, we'll have a smaller group (10 - 20 kids).  A smaller group is easier for me to keep track of and I think will probably be more productive.  Of course, I'll take whoever would like to come out and help.  There won't be any bus to the Boys and Girls club, so kids will need to be picked up at 3:30 at school.  If you'd like to come out and help, or if your kid would like to come help, let me know and I'll send home some information next week before break.  It may be fall/winter but there's still plenty for us to do.

Garden Party - Thanks Everyone!

Stink Bugs

Stink bugs, it turns out, are probably going to be a huge agricultural problem in the not too distant future.  Here's a link from the University of Florida Entomology Department showing how to make a stink bug trap.   Actually, I'm thinking it may not have been squash bugs that destroyed the school pumpkin patch. They look pretty much alike unless you really stop to check them out.  Which I didn't.  
Hmmmmm. . .

They don't seem to like the nightshade family as they seem to have left the tomatoes and potatoes alone.  Good to know I guess.  Looks like the garden club has a new project!

Garden Club starting again

I'll be meeting with any students who are interested in working in the garden every Tuesday afternoon after school.  We'll get started as soon as everyone arrives and work until 3:30.  All I need is a note from parents saying that their kid is staying after school with me and letting me know how they are going to get home.  For now, parents will have to pick up their kids or they'll have to go to the After School Program.  When clubs officially start at the end of this month, there will be a bus to the Boys and Girls club at 3:30 (ish).

Any parents that would like to help out are also more than welcome to come one out and work in the garden with us.  Actually, I'm begging you!  Please come out and help.  There are a lot of kids that want to help and the more adults present, the less chaotic the group is.

Also, don't forget our garden party on Saturday, September 18th from 1-4.

What a mess. . .

Alrighty then, that garden is a mess. I've been busy getting my classroom ready and haven't been out to the garden for about a week and a half. Wow! The weeds went nuts! I know it's not a nice thing to say, but I truly hate Bermuda grass. If anyone has anytime to head out there and weed, now would be a great time. Plus, it's not supposed to be too hot this week (though it's a bit toasty today).

Tomatoes are doing well though they're about two weeks behind my tomatoes at home.
I've planted a second rotation of peas that are coming up now.
The pumpkins have squash bugs, but I'll mix up some soap solution that should take care of them.

On the agenda:
-weeding
-watering
-getting a new spigot for the water barrel

One last thing:

Garden Party
September 18th (yes, we'll have it cleaned up by then)
1:00-4:00
Potluck
Music
Garden plans from Pete and Andrea (our friendly neighborhood UVa landscape architecture students)
Garden tour

I've managed to make some stuff from our garden I'll bring. I'll also make a big cooler of homemade lemondade. You bring a dish of something from your garden (or someone else's garden). We'll eat together, listen to some music, check out the garden and the garden plans, maybe toss a frisbee and enjoy our cooler weather.

Plans

Yesterdays meeting that Ms. Puddy and I attended with Andrea and Pete (the UVA landscape architecture students) about the garden plan went incredibly well. I'm fascinated by the process of putting this together. It's very much like the writing process we teach in school - brainstorming, first draft, editing, proofreading, more drafts, more editing and proofreading, etc. Ms. Jones has okayed the plan and will take care of the necessary paperwork. In the meantime, we can move forward. We've also been okayed for the party on September 18th. Huzzah!

Brainstorming

A rough plan of what the garden could be. Apples!

A Photoshop mock up of what the garden might look like and a calendar for what you might find over the year.

Another mock up of what the garden could look like.

Wednesday in the Garden

Finished weeding the onions this morning. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to salvage them, but it's worth a shot. Everything else is looking surprisingly good. Two beds are mulched now. That should really help with the weeds and keeping the ground wet.

Next week, there's going to be a group of volunteers helping out for a couple hours each day. Mostly they'll be doing some painting in the office and front hall of the school, but I'm hoping to pull a couple of them to help dig the blasted holes for our sign. There are just so many rocks in the field that I've been really discouraged trying to dig them by myself. After all, it took me two hours to plant a couple of roses. Having help will be wonderful.

Also, tomorrow afternoon I get to see the plan the our volunteer UVA A-School folks have drawn up for us. I'm very excited to see what they've come up with.

Anyway, here are some more pictures from this morning.

Here are the tops of the potato plants. They're buried under about 8 inches of straw.

Things are really doing a lot better now that we're getting some rain.

There are a couple of great things in this picture. The first thing is the watermelon is flowering. The second thing is that they're being pollinated. That needs to happen if we're going to be eating melon anytime soon.

Monday In The Garden

Fergie and I spent a couple hours in the garden yesterday morning. The potatoes are now living in a nice bed of straw and the zucchini/cucumber bed is mulched well. We were there for summer school recess so bunches of kids got to come hang out for a little while. They all wanted to know when the garden club would start up again. Well, every Wednesday morning I'm there from 9 to noon. Also, I'm happy to meet up at other times, just shoot me an email and I'll be there. Otherwise, I'm thinking the second week of school (which is coming far quicker than I thought it would) is a good time to aim for starting up the group again. Of course, I'll need to check in with Ms. Jones and some other folks on that. In the mean time, here are a couple pictures to keep you thinking about things.

The cherry tomatoes are coming in. I ate most of the ripe ones. Sorry, it was getting close to lunchtime and I was a bit hungry. The yellow pear tomatoes are starting to ripen as well, but I didn't take their picture.
We're starting to get quite a few zucchinis, too. I gave two of them away to an old student and took three home. There are about four more that will be ready in the next couple of days. Please help yourself.
The sunflowers are starting to bloom.

Fergie discovered that she likes to help with watering.
Well. . . she discovered she likes to run into the spray.

Dilly Bean Recipe for Janelle

Janelle asked for the recipe so. . .

Dilly beans are like pickles but with green beans instead of cucumbers. Plus, they're awesome. This is basically the same recipe I use for cucumbers. I got it from my grandmother.

For the brine combine 3 and 3/4 cups of water, 1 and 1/2 cups of cider vinegar and 1/4 of a cup of kosher salt. This is enough to make 6-8 pint jars of dilly beans.

Sterilize the jars and lids*.

Wash the beans. Trim the ends of the beans, if you like. . . or not. . . depends on how you feel about these things. Stuff pint jars with beans. Wedge in some seed heads or leaves of dill (about 2 tablespoons) as well as 2-4 cloves of garlic. . . again, depends on how you feel about these things. I like garlic so I put in 4.

Pour the brine into the filled jars to within 1/4 of an inch from the top.

Tighten the lids onto the jars and process* the jars in a canner for 15 minutes.

The dilly beans will have pretty good flavor after 24 hours in the jar, but it develops more the longer they're in there. If you can wait two weeks, I think that's the best time to eat them.

*Canning sounds harder than it is. I'm pretty sure Janelle knows how to do this, but here are the basics for those who haven't done it before. I'd suggest picking up a good book on food preservation and investing in a canning pot. They also make pressurized canning pots that you'll probably want if you get into doing this a lot.

To sterilize the jars and lids, put them in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes. You can just use a canning pot for this. Then put the jars mouth down on a clean towel to cool until you need them. Same with the lids. It's kind of important to not touch the inside or rim of the jars once they're sterilized. Your hands have all kinds of funky stuff living on them. However, when you're stuffing the jars it's next to impossible not to touch them. I don't worry too much about it as the processing will take care of it most of the time.

To process the dilly beans you need put the filled jars into a pot and cover the jars with water. Bring it to a boil and make sure it boils for 15 minutes. They make a really good tool called a jar gripper to take the jars out. Trust me you'll need it! Once the jars are out of the water bath, check the seal. If the seal is good store the jars in a cool, dry place out of direct light. If the jar didn't seal properly, you can keep them in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Jars with a proper seal will last a long time. If you find that one of your stored jars has a seal that failed, go ahead and dispose of it. You don't want to play around with food poisoning.